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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

What Is "Fashion Forward"?

This is a question I'm eager to hear your thoughts on, readers. During the Passion for Fashion competition, we were told repeatedly that our goal was to make our ensemble "fashion forward." As the hours passed, I realized I have no idea what that means.

To me, I suppose I think "avant-garde" or "ahead of its time." But what does that look like? Could you pick it out on the runway? Could you come up with it yourself?

As the show went on, I joked that my aesthetic is really "fashion backward." And, well, it is. I love the looks of the past and I only make subtle tweaks to them in my own designs. I mean, Dior's New Look doesn't really need improving upon. It just needs a few adjustments to make it wearable today. Is that fashion forward enough? Would Heidi Klum approve? (No.)

During the competition, we had a great mentor named Becky Fulgoni. She was like Tim Gunn, but with motorcycle boots and a shaved head. Her critiques were fantastic. Her critique of my work (not surprisingly) was "what is fashion forward about this?" That was the hardest question to answer. As the hours passed, I felt less and less sure. And I realized: I have no idea what fashion forward is. (I only know that McQueen was fashion forward, and that is the extent of my knowledge on that term.)

But really, do any of us know what fashion forward is? Could we agree upon it if we saw it? Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts.

P.S. Here's a picture of me and my model, Samia, before the runway show!

Sorry "fashion forward" is just an empty phrase to me. Fashion is on an ever spinning spiral of self re-invention trying to trick us that this time it's new and fresh.I'm personally more interested in style and signature marks: pieces that carry your own individual energy, personal approach to fashion and definition of aesthetic.

People usually seem to apply the term to clothing that is very much in line with current fashion, but just slightly different.Truly fashion forward to me are the collections that are on the conceptual-art-side of the spectrum, such as Victor and Rolf, or indeed McQueen. It most definitely depends on the time you're in whether you're 'forward'. Rembrandt was very forward thinking, but if you painted like him now I don't think anybody would notice your paintings as extraordinary. Clothing seems to be more forgiving that way. Like you said, a Dior with a few tweaks still works beautifully in modern times.

I'm way more interested in what someone's personal style is! I could give a flying fig what someone within the fashion industry or the industry itself considers "fashion forward". I agree with coffeeaddict, I find it an empty phrase for me, too.

I think it's just a term. It doesn't really mean anything - just look at all this year's collections on runways: they follow the same concepts, all of them. Light-coloured trenches/coats, pencil skirts, those puritan collars and some "sexy business" wear is all that I saw in this autumn's fashion.

I think wearing something that matches your style is the most fashion forward thing you can do. You feel comfortable in it and that shows to everyone. Pffft "fashion forward".

Your skirt is gorgeous - can we get a tutorial or a pattern or something like that for it?

It is a bit of a silly term - yes McQueen was fashion forward, but he was also a downright genius - which is so rare that there will only ever be a handful of creatives like him alive at any given point in time (big claim to make I know!)

I think trying to BE fashion forward is like trying to be cool - The harder you try the more of an ass you look.

Until I read this post, I had never actually thought about this, but I don't think I could define "fashion forward" if you paid me to! I feel like many of the things deemed "fashion forward" are so modern (or rather, futuristic) that they're unwearable, at least for me.

Fashion forward to me always has something to do with the more avant garde style designers (like McQueen), rather than anything that is remotely wearable for the average person. Like you, I'm far more "fashion backward" (great term! ;), and don't really pay much attention to the whole idea of forward fashion. Not that I'm seeing a lot of it come off the runways these days anyway...

Fashion forward to me always has something to do with the more avant garde style designers (like McQueen), rather than anything that is remotely wearable for the average person. Like you, I'm far more "fashion backward" (great term! ;), and don't really pay much attention to the whole idea of forward fashion. Not that I'm seeing a lot of it come off the runways these days anyway...

It's one of those annoying phrases that fashionista's throw out. In the UK you can't move for them saying vomit-inducing statements like "Bang on trend" bleugh! I suppose by fashion forward they mean it's what the high street will be selling in a watered-down version in 6 months.

I thought "fashion forward" was an industry term, for expressing the need to be looking to be designing fashion not for the now but for the 2 years from now. You know, the fashion which people are wearing now or the trends which are being seen now are not what designers and design houses are interested in.

The industry have designed the fashions of now some 2 or 3 years ago.

I thought "en vogue" is the nowand fashion forward the next year or even really the year after that.

I thought fashion forward was just about making sure that you are at the front of trending, informing and making trends rather than following or being informed.

To me "fashion forward" means will people be excited about wearing this tomorrow? I laugh because just yesterday I described your winning garment as "modernesque" (more fun would be to call it Moedern) because its entirely rooted in the past (as every silhouette anyone can ever deign to use is)but your intention is always for everyday wear in our modern society, and I feel like that's what makes it fashion forward. Your retro esthetic in particular is imagined by you to go out into the world we live in. I feel like your use of batik in that challenge was VERY fashion forward, because it was used not only in a circle skirt, but you made batik look very glamorous and make it's folky/hippy roots look fashionable in a way that wasn't bohemian at all.

I agree with m&d; I think of "fashion forward" as an industry term that was much more relevant in the pre-internet days than it is today. It used to take much longer for images of what was seen on the runway to be seen by the public, then made into RTW or patterns for the home sewist. Think about Mary Quant rocking the world with her mini skirt! She was experimenting with them as early as the late 1950's, but it took until 1965 for the look to really start showing up. With media these days, there are few surprises left!

I think fashion forward is not about marking a certain time point in fashion history, it is rather about thinking forward while designing the elements of a garment. Although I don't sew extravagant designs I still ask myself whether it is necessary to make a dress look like one? Why not to cut away a part of it? Why not to make it different? Why should it be wearable? Why should it look like something we are used to? The point of course is that society wouldn't be happy if we are all were going to wear 'crazy' looking designs, but on the runway? Why not?...

This is just my opinion, but a lot of times what they consider fashion forward on Project Runway is butt ugly! I like pretty clothes, and I don't really care if they are fashion forward, backwards or sideways ; )

I agree with Magic and Drudgery. When I hear the term "fashion forward" to me that means - what's next. Not what people want to wear today but what they are going to want to wear next year or 2 years from now. To me it is different than being avant garde. Avant garde designs to me are more about the artistic statement and about illiciting an emotional reaction in the viewer and/or wearer. They are art for art's sake and fashion is the medium. Many of McQueen's designs were both fashion forward AND avant garde. The ballet-slipper heels at the top of Gertie's post are avant garde. But his bumster trousers and skirts where fashion forward AND avant garde. In creating them he was playing with a design principle - trying to push it to it's extreme in lengthening the torso in the viewer's perception. But those trousers ushered in the whole era of low waisted pants. Those pants were "what's next".

I've always naively believed clothes are supposed to make people look attractive. Fashion designers often forget that or even design clothes to make the wearer look ridiculous and unattractive. I don't understand why women would be tricked into wearing clothes that make them look awful.Personal style is about what looks good on you and is perfectly comfortable to wear. Much better concept.I'm so glad I can sew!

"Fashion forward" is what an individual uses to express, "Gee, there's a little something about this that I haven't seen before, that makes me smile, or that intrigues me." It's a little different for everyone.

E.g. Prarie blouses. They were oh so popular, what, 10 years ago? Now they look like you dredged them out of a closet. (Hm. Though the trend right now seems to be skinny jeans and baggy, transparent shirts, so maybe they're not as out of date as I declared.) See? Little different for everyone :)

Fashion Forward? I do believe that fashion forward is something that one can see as being (fashion forward) and another can see as not. Is Fashion Forward, just another term for going to an extreme or just taking fashion to a crazy extreme? Ugh! I have more questions than I have answers!

First of all congratulations for your success!And I have to admit I never heard of "fashion forward" before. To me it sounds like an empty phrase too or at best like moving on and bringing it to a new level, come up with something that has never been there before. But honestly, is there anything new under the sun? And then, (mostly) every garment we make for ourselves has never been there before and is unique but this certainly isn't what this term is supposed to mean. The argument of modern versus retro or new versus old is vain anyway, for you just have to wait long enough and anything new and modern will be old and retro, sometimes it takes a little longer (like with furniture) sometimes it is really fast (yes, my notebook by now is archaic).Sorry, somehow I feel I missed the point of this discussion, so now I'll go and try find the missing pieces of my bombshell muslin. I found a discarded cup serving time as a lifeboat on a cardboard ferry boat the boys buildt. Uuuuuh yes. Maybe the redrafted pieces have been commandeered for their pirat project. Then I can call it my Sail-away-dress, ha! That's my way of fashion forward: looking forward to finding pattern pieces.

To recognize "fashion forward" when you see it, you need to spend a lot of time reading Vogue, W, watching fashion shows, and various non-American fashion magazines. It's a time commitment.

Why on earth would you want to? Your aesthetic is retro, you like it that way, and you don't have an interest in opening a design line to be sold in cutting-edge boutiques. As you know, there's a comfortable market for the sort of stuff you love doing in specialty boutiques, and the people who do those lines don't pay a second's attention to "fashion-forward". (Not that you want to open a line in any case, AFAIK.)

By the way -- have you ever contacted Vogue and asked them if they're interested in reprinting your Vogue bible? At $150-plus a copy, and with the retro craze, there might well be a market.

"Fashion Forward" is kind of like the Supreme Court definition of obscenity: "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it."

I think it can encompass homages to the past, as well as refer to space-age or disturbing looks (a la McQueen). Gertie, your looks can be as fashion forward as any contemporary designer's. Much of it is in how the looks are styled.

I don't know about forward, but I do like a new design that flatters me. It happens sometimes, and then I make sure I have it. I feel the classic designs become classic because they flatter many women. It is hard to move "forward" into something that makes you look ugly.

V interesting post. I think 'fashion forward' is one of those terms people use without really thinking about what it means. It's basically meaningless.

I think your 'fashion backward' look is actually more fresh than a lot of so-called 'forward' stuff. I love a lot of avant-garde fashion designer stuff as art, but when it comes to translating it into everyday clothes I'm not so sure. For example, I know everyone fawns over her but I hate Daphne Guinness's style. She just looks so uncomfortable all the time! And she's practically the definition of 'fashion-forward'.

I have been thinking about this a little since I first saw your photos on Sunday night. I think they were looking for something that would be more likely to be seen on a runway than on the street, and their way of talking about that was this term, "fashion forward". To a certain extent, there is a thought that we will be wearing more outrageous designs in the future, but I don't think we are really expected to ever dress exactly like most of what we see in today's couture shows, whether we would be wearing it two years from now or a decade from now. It can't be all about the future, either, because when I look at the Sartorialist's photos from recent shows, I'm seeing a lot of vintage inspiration in the Fall 2011 shows, like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Jonathan Saunders, and Bottega Vaneta; also Spring/Summer 2012 at Prada. I think that perhaps "fashion forward" is not about looking to the future, but about making the "fashion" element -- the conceptual art element -- more predominant than wearability. Personally, I think that the skeletal bustier in your Kahlo outfit makes the whole thing much more conceptual. The juxtaposition between the graphic upper half and the batik also seems much more interesting and "fashion forward" than than the #2 winner, the 101 Dalmations. I still think you should have won. :)

When I teach design I use the term 'fashion forward' to refer to styles/concepts that might sell or be popular a few years into the future. It's not complicated or evil, simply the focus is on future trends, not current trends or wildly experimental ideas that don't contribute to fashion as a whole. For your event, I'm guessing 'fashion forward' was used to communicate that the judges were hoping to see new ideas that were different from current 'looks' and might predict a new trend for the future.

I think we need a new word..."fashion forward" might be a great term for something that is not only fashionable, but pushing the trend to its next possible incarnation, but it seems bland and overused. When I think of high fashion, I think of too-thin models wearing impossible silhouettes. I much prefer your term "fashion backward", and shapes of clothing that do what they are supposed to do...flatter! I see vintage patterns everyday that are exciting and feel "new" with their ingenuity.

"Fashion Forward" to me is a term that aims to exclude. I think it's easier for us to determine what isn't "Fashion Forward". It's purely subjective, much like something like fine craft, (which I recently learned did not include the sewing I do).

WOW, I'd say those shoes are fashion forward but they're a little creepy too - the more I look at them the more they remind me of the bound feet of Japanese women. But fashion forward just means to me, a new look, something that you haven't seen before quite that way or at least haven't seen recently. A different way of manipulating fabric or putting fabrics together. Just a fresh approach. We can be fashion forward just within our own closets by the choices we make with combinations or accessories.

I don't know from fashion, but I have to say that your design was by far the best of the three as shown in your previous post. I couldn't see a connection with Alice in #1, and #2 looks like it just copied Cruella Deville's outfit in the movie. Yours is the most creative, artistic, and graceful. (Also, I think it's an accomplishment that you look great standing next to that model :))

The reference to the Supreme Court's definition of obscenity in Gorgeous Things's comment points to Fashion Forward as being something real but very difficult to define, and I agree. Like Liz said, it seems to have more to do with anticipating trends, what people will want to wear, than with coming up with something completely new that's never been done before or creating art to inspire, not wear.

I think Bill Cunningham's recent NY Times article on New York Fashion Week is a good example of spotting a Fashion Forward trend: http://nyti.ms/o4fEvr

In the case of your beautiful dress, what struck me as forward was your unique form of homage to an artist. Sure YSL did an homage to Mondrian, but that was strictly about the art. Your dress incorporates the art AND the artist. That's new, and possibly very forward in terms of vintage trends.

In the moment, when asked, you probably play a role as designer in convincing critics etc that what you're doing is new and has a real possibility of catching on as a trend. You actually had the message IMO, but didn't know it.

It sounds like a bullshit business buzzword to me, like "paradigm" and "vertical integration." Just a different business. Though you are really asking what they mean by it. If I had to guess, they mean What is new about this? New makes money. Trends that people don't have in their closets means they have to go out any buy new. Sounds cynical, but that's my best guess.

There is nothing new under the sun. With the possible exception of Eve's first fig leaf, all fashion has been derivative and repetitive. Dior's New Look was only "new" in that it hadn't been done in recent memory; but it too was just a repetition of a Victorian look. Phooey on "fashion-forward" or even just "fashion". Fashion fades; style endures. And girl, you got style.

Jen O said pretty much what I came here to post: fashion forward design (or anything 'forward') means being able to grok the zeitgeist well enough to figure out what's bubbling in the collective consciousness that hasn't been specifically expressed yet.

eg. Dior's New Look was fashion forward because after years of economic depression and war, women were tired of having to scrimp on fabric and wear 'very very serious' clothing. With the end of the war and the coming of prosperity, women were ready to let their beauty and femininity blossom; Dior gave them dresses like flowers.

Maybe the fashion forwardness of your outfit was taking the traumatic event of her life and turning it into something beautiful and wearable. This is something you see in other art forms (esp tattoos), not sure if anyone's doing it in fashion yet. Not hiding scars (physical or otherwise) is part of the current zeitgeist.

I prefer a look that's going to endure (Coco Chanel, Dior, etc.). They were considered "fashion forward" in their day. My profession is music, and there's a lot of crap being composed today. There's also a lot of really good stuff that will still be performed generations from now. We still love Beethoven (and the Beatles), and we are still wearing Chanel and Dior outfits. It takes boldness to step out there and try something new. Some "fashion forward" items will endure and some will fall by the wayside. Somehow our artistic eye can sense those that are destined to become classics.

Yeah, like someone else said, it seems one would have to really study fashion to have some mastery over what is current, and what is forward. That would be too time consuming for me, and not a very interesting topic to me, personally. Like most of the commenters, I focus more on what I like than what the masses will like (especially in the future - that makes my head hurt).

You have a very strong sense of style that served you well in this challenge. You did a wonderful job! Congratulations.

Being a fellow 'coffeeaddict'I agree with what she says. 'fashion forward' is an empty phrase. I am quite a bit older than you and I have watched these phrases that mean nothing pop up everywhere. Kind of like the 'spin' that poloticians use so no one knows where they stand and what it means. It is a bit like "the Emperor's new clothes", no one wants to be the one to say it means nothing. Like 'Tasha' I say personal style is what catches my eye. Let us all enjoy fashion, style and sewing and not worry about fashion forward!

Like Phyllis said, I know "fashion forward" when I see it. When I see someone that I think is very stylish, I say to myself, "Wow! I love what she's wearing!" And when it's the opposite I say, "Wow! What in the world is she wearing?!" There's a thin line between an outfit and a get-up. And for me, fashion forward boils down to how it is styled.

This is the first time I heard the phrase "fashion forward". I had to look it up! In the dictionary it says "more modern than things that are fashionable now". I guess it basically means - the next thing in fashion.

I think fashion is quite silly. I mean, of course there's inspiring work by designers. Some of it has changed our lives as women and as a society. But wearing what is fashionable, regardless of your age and body type and personal preference is just stupid. It's also a way to keep the money flowing into the stores, and is not good for the environment (lots of waste).

I prefer to create my own style. Not that I'm the most stylish person on this earth. Sometimes my style is just "I don't care about any of you, this is what's comfortable for me right now". Sometimes it's "I made this myself and I love that".

You know that feeling when you've been bundled in coats and sweaters all winter, and you see the first store window display of breezy spring dresses? That longing for something you wouldn't wear now, but is just around the corner and the perfect antidote to the fashion you've grown tired of?

To me, anything truly fashion-forward has that feeling, but multiple seasons in advance. It scratches an itch you didn't even know you had. It doesn't matter if the silhouette is new or old, classic or avant garde. It's different from what's "now" and what was "last year", and that difference is refreshing and intriguing. But it's also wholly subjective. ;)

I think hindsight is 50/50 when it comes to "fashion forward." It can be hard in the moment to see that something is fashion forward. Like McQueen's "Bumster" pants, for example. I bet they looked downright silly to most people in 1992, but then 10 years later every other lady was running around with half her buttcrack exposed. Maybe fashion forward is doing something totally strange, and then doing it so well, that everybody wants to wear it anyway...and then it becomes fashion.

I agree with those who are groping toward a definition centered around fashion which is "in advance" of what we are wearing, or even imagining we might wear in the near future. It's an idea of clothing that is a paradigm shift. As a few people said here, it's easy to identify in hindsight; harder to identify now.

I think "fashion forward" plays out at the highest level--runway shows, designer studios and magazines--and filters down to the rest of us. So unless they center their whole lives around fashion analysis, have a lot of disposable income, OR unusually imaginative and risk-taking dressers, most people are not going to be, or create, "fashion forward." Instead, they will create "personal style," which you, Gertie, have in surplus.

I tend to think of "fashion forward" as a prompt to come up with a justification for why your work will create trends in the future.

In other words, it's not, to my mind, a thing in its own right so much as it is the world of fashion's demand that you come up with a marketing claim that describes your approach in a way that will catch the attention of a fickle marketplace.

I guess fashion is like technology : first, something is fashion-forward, then it's mainstream, and become passé or classic. There are early adopters, impervious people and in-between.But, in the end, even impervious people are concerned by trends : you don't/can't buy audio tapes anymore, you probably don't wear big 80's suits either.

Interesting question… I'm never exactly sure what 'fashion forward' means either except it it often seems to fit in sentences with 'aspirational' and 'edgy'.

I see it as a purely commercial phrase used by fashion biz folk who need to worry about the next best thing. It means "Can we convince them to chuck out all the clothes they just bought and buy these instead?" ;)

I have normally heard the term in the same context that Jen O explained--within retail and the fashion industry, fashion that is thinking of future trends (not so much avant garde). I think the term has been around a long time but I wonder if it's useful anymore. When I was 17, I applied for a job at Contempo Casuals (no longer around but it was sort of an early type of high street store like H&M, Urban OUtfitters, etc.) and the manager said "we are looking for very fashion forward people". Back in the 80s we didn't have as much accessibility to magazine or trendy fashion--it was just the mall (and I sewed, too, but that was unusual). There was still the "trickle down" thing where what one saw in mags or ads or whatever would take some, even years, to show up in a store version. But now the fashion cycle is so sped up, there's all the fast fashion, and more ability/encouragement/freedom to create individual style.

your question, how do you know what is fashion forward?Well, for me, anytime I see something prominent on the runway that I'm not sure I would ever wear its usually a great sign that about to be the next bigthing. What I've learnt over the years is that the "new" in fashion, scares the heck out of most people, then as time goes by the media warms us up to it and retail stores makes it wearable for the average person, for exampleskinny jeans or pants, OMG, that was so controversial, now its more excepted.

Fashion Forward when I was younger meant pouring over magazines and running out an getting the latest looks or sitting at the sewing machine and being the first to dare wear a new look. Today it means looking over magazines for the new seasons fashion decided what colors I like, styles that work for me and fit my lifestyle then sitting at my sewing machine. However if I was trying to design a look and asked the question I would probably have a deer in the head light look! I love your design by the way the capelett is marvelous!

I never feel very "fashion forward", my style is very classic. I feel like I am being fashion forward if I choose a print instead of a solid...I know it's sad, but black really works and makes me feel polished. To me, fashion forward can mean reinventing a classic look to make it something completely new, or create an iconic piece. I would be more inclined to go for reinventing, because how many of us can really create an iconic look?

Oh dear - I read the comments this morning and agreed with most of you - but for a laugh check this out - news in Australia this evening. http://www.news.com.au/national/customer-complaint-email-and-response-by-gasp-clothing-goes-viral/story-e6frfkvr-1226152016436?sv=7ec23b083c4ee37c3c1266f64be7c908

Honesty I feel like "fashion forward" is a buzz term used by the sewing world but it doesn't have much meaning because it can mean almost anything depending on the people critiquing (maybe that means it mean everything?). I find it much more important to know what I want and what my audience wants and to stay true to that. Gertie, your sewing is just what I want!

Woohoo, commenting on old blog posts . . . I've been restraining myself from commenting on every other post as I read through your backlog, by the way.

But right now, I HAVE to say that for me "fashion forward" is pretty synonymous with "aesthetically corrupt," to the extent where I would never even register for a competition like this despite any other benefits.

Gertie Gertie! I read this post a few months ago and have replayed it in my mind repeatedly as I teach myself to sew. I think "fashion forward" must include something other than a showcase for razor-sharp thighs. Don't get me wrong, that kind of fashion is great if you can carry it off, but sadly at 42 I can't anymore, and I am not alone. Last I checked we all age every year and get dressed every day. There must be a way "forward" for the rest of us!!!

Firstly, I have to comment on those shoes at the beginning of this post - I think they look very similar to the small shoes worn by Chinese ladies with bound feet - ouch! Speaking of things Chinese, and fashion forwards / or backwards; traditionally, when learning Chinese Calligraphy, the intention of the calligraphy is in the meditative process of production - not the end product. A true artist in this sense, is a calligrapher who focuses on the process, and may then throw away or tear up the finished product. As soon as a calligrapher sells a work, they no longer focus on the meditative process, but on the finished product i.e. the sales opportunities, and therefore can no longer call themselves an artist, but is simply a craftsman. Therefore, a true artist, is always an amateur.Perhaps this is what Becky was on about - the finished product opportunities for production and sales, as opposed to the meditative and thoughtful creative process you were on as an artist.